6 main issues with iOS 6 and how to solve them

iOS 6 rolled out just over a week ago and we were excited, too excited it may seem.15% of Apples 400 million iOS users downloaded the new update in the first 24 hours of release and to date over 100 million of us already have it. Some reported waiting times of up to 15 hours and others took straight to forums and social networks decrying their dissatisfaction.

For the first time in Apple’s history an iOS update has caused the companies customer satisfaction to drop and even if it’s only a marginal drop, for a company that to its faithful can do no wrong, it is still a drop.Let’s just say we are glad that Apple doesn’t make cars and that iOS 6 wasn’t their crossover into the automotive industry. If you take the hysteria to heart, it would be a car with an inverted windscreen (Maps), It would run around a mile to the gallon (Battery Issues), it wouldn’t be able to play music (vanishing iTunes libraries), and perhaps most importantly it wouldn’t have wheels (Serious Wi-Fi issues). Luckily Apple doesn’t make cars, they make phones, tablets and MP3 players and even with all their OS 6 issues, it is still a good update, and we can guarantee that Apple will iron out the kinks. Until then, we’ve put together a list of the biggest problems with iOS 6 and we will let you know the best advice on solving them right now.

1. WI-FI

On release day Apple warned us that their servers would be working to capacity, they warned us that the early adaptors to iOS 6 might have to wait and they warned us that iCloud might be down for a few hours. They were right, but what they didn’t tell us (well those of us with the 4s or the new iPad) is that the WI-FI option would be greyed out and unavailable. It turns out that someone at Apple dropped the proverbial ball and that this was a simple problem of a downed verification page, which was rectified within a few hours of release. For 90% of us problem solved, for the rest of us connecting to WI-FI has still been an issue. Luckily there are three basic fixes that have come out of over 100 pages of advice on the Apple support forums, which should solve all the Wi-Fi problems for all iOS 6 users.

1.  Reset Network Settings: Go to Settings – General – Reset – Reset Network Settings and reboot your system.
2. Go to settings and select your regular Wi-Fi connection, scroll down to the HTTP proxy section and select AUTO (It should be set as Off as standard).
3.  Only do this if the first two options have not worked: You will need to reset WI-Fi security on your home or office router. Your current security settings should be set to WPA2 AES and you can change the routers security settings to WPA2 TKIP, which for many iOS 6 users solve the issue.

2. Battery Life

Battery life has been a major concern for many of the early adopters to iOS 6 and because of this, earlier in the week, we put together a detailed article on how you can increase your battery life on iOS 6 with detailed answers to all of your battery life concerns.

3. Maps

“For the execution of the voyage to the Indies, I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics or maps. “ -Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus believed that it was prophecy that led him to his monumental discoveries of the “New World” and it would appear that with the release of iOS 6 Maps, Apple believes in the same ideals. With the plethora of errors in iOS 6 it would appear that Maps have chosen to shape the world around us rather than report it. The problem is we already know the world is round, we know that there aren’t bridges in Home Depot, we know that parks don’t magically appear in the middle of cities and we know thatthe greatest author in the English language once said, “Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent” Apple Maps perhaps in a prophetic twist of fate doesn’t seem to think that the town he’s from, Stratford Upon Avon, warrants a space on their new interface. When Google moved into the tech market Apple got antsy, we lost YouTube and we got Maps. The problem is Google has been doing Maps for years and they have perfected it, Apple hasn’t, and is relying on third parties to deliver.

The Solution

Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak has expressed his concerns and Apple’s CEO Tim Cooke has released an official apology stating, “At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.”

What’s the solution for Apple? Apple is allegedly aggressively recruiting former Google employees to solve their Maps issue with at least 10 Map related jobs corporate.html advertised on their website.

What to do until the problem is solved? It’s cruel, because the Turn-By-Turn navigation and Flyover modes are great (in principle), but if like me you find walking forwards while your Maps is telling you you’re walking backwards annoying – install the Google Maps App at least until they solve the serious issues.

4. Vanishing Music Libraries

Personally this was my biggest issue with the iOS6 update. I played around with the new features for a few minutes and decided that I’d play a song in the background while I continued to explore iOS 6. When I opened iTunes on my iPhone 4s all of the artist were still there, but the song titles were blank and the song length was set to 0:00 for my entire library. I was furious, take my WI-FI, pervert my Maps but don’t touch my music! Fortunately for anyone who still has this problem there is a relaitively simple fix. You can sync your iOS device to your computer through iMatch which for most should restore your entire library. However, if problems still persists (as they did for me)following the slightly more complex steps found in the Macrumours support community rectified my issue and should be able to do the same for you.

1.  Download and install iExplorer
2. Plug your iPhone into your computer and open iExplorer
3. Delete the iPhone\Media\iTunes_Control folder
4. Reboot your iOS device
5. Start music App

5. Cannot Access App Store From Passbook

We had heard a lot about Passbook, we wanted NFC, but Passbook would have to do. For those of us who updated to iOS 6 on release day we were looking forward to seeing what Passbook had to offer. The problem is when we opened Passbook all we saw was “Failure to connect to App Store”. How though? Starbucks was used as an example at the WWDC conference and we figured that over a week later we would at least have that as one of our loyalty cards. No such luck, I’m looking at Passbook now and there are 4 options available to me: iHotel, United Airlines, Lufansa and American Airlines. The good news is that Passbook is now working and that every large company with a loyalty programme will be on board in the next few months. The solution? You’re just going to have to wait…

6. Facebook Email Sync Disaster

When iOS 5 was released it was all about Twitter. Last weekiOS 6 came out and Facebook took their turn in the spotlight. Unfortunately during their quest to oust Google as the world’s most essential online tool,Mark Zuckerberg& co made some recentchanges that many of us never knew or didn’t pay attention to. Facebook basically told us to update our default email addresses, and for those of us who didn’t heed the advice or don’t visit Facebook frequent enough to have noticed we have been assigned the annoying and irrelevant @facebook.com email addresses instead. No big deal until iOS 6 came out with Facebook integration we got the good: profile pictures and linked updates, and the bad: new @facebook.com email addresses replacing actually relevant and useable ones and in some cases old phone numbers replacing new and accurate ones. What’s the solution? It’s actually incredibly easy and all you need to do is: Settings – Facebook – Contacts – Off. Sadly if you enjoy all of the features that Facebook integration offers you’ll need to get in touch with your friends and tell them to update their Facebook profiles.